Domestic tourism resumes in Georgia
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Tuesday, June 16
Domestic tourism opened in Georgia on the 15th of June. Local travelers will again have the opportunity to visit the protected areas, monuments and resorts in different parts of Georgia and use the services of hotels and food outlets. All protected areas of the country will also start receiving visitors. Entering the territories is permitted in accordance with the recommendations developed to prevent the spread of the new Coronavirus. The Agency for Protected Areas states that all visitors will undergo thermal screening before entering the area. In closed buildings and visitor centers, including caves, it is mandatory to wear a veil and keep your distance.
Due to the pandemic, all facilities are required to comply with the rules established by the Ministry of Health.
Under the new law, violating the rule of wearing a facemask in a closed public space during a pandemic and/or epidemic will result in a fine of GEL20. However, wearing a mask will not be mandatory for children under the age of 6, people with disabilities and certain health problems.
According to Mariam Kvrivishvili, the head of the Georgian National Tourism Administration, expectations for domestic tourism are very positive. "We see that the mood of our private sector is very positive. Many citizens of our country at this stage, I think, have a desire to discover what is ours, or to travel to Georgia.”-she said.
In connection with the opening of domestic tourism, the President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili called on the citizens in a video address from Lamiskani to travel inside Georgia and see many sights. The President herself visited Jambakur-Orbeliani Palace and appealed to travel with care.
“I want to start a journey with you to Georgia, to discover different places. Places that may be less well known and we all understand that there are so many sights worth discovering here,” she said.
Natalia Bakhtadze-Engelender, a representative of the Ecotourism Association, talked about the expected difficulties with the opening of domestic tourism. According to her, not all types of facilities in Georgia are equally ready to receive tourists and follow the recommendations published by the Ministry of Health.
Ecotourism Association rep claims that safety and hygiene in the regions was a big problem even before the virus spread in the country, and it will be difficult to follow the recommendations, especially for family-type hotels and family cellars.
It’s noteworthy that at the end of last week, the Labor Inspection Department of the Ministry of Health of Georgia inspected 26 food outlets and fined 16 of them by 10,000 for violating the norms established for the prevention of the spread of coronavirus.
Beka Peradze, the head of the department at the briefing held at the government administration yesterday, said that 11,400 companies were instructed to prepare for the opening of the economy and detailed recommendations on prevention were made according to the sector.
According to Peradze, industry associations, including those from the restaurant business, were involved in the process, along with the National Tourism Administration, although many have seen photos and videos of social media violations in recent days.
Peradze says that the sanction is not an end in itself. He called the fine a ‘necessity for prevention’ and said: “All regulation and efforts are in jeopardy if the health and life of each person is endangered.”
According to the head of the Department of Labor Inspection, 939 hotels have been registered in the base so far. 150 of them have already received a work renewal permit. 175 failed to meet the criteria. Others asked for a few more days before the inspection.
Besides that, the transportation of passengers by rail also resumed in Georgia mid-June. It has been suspended since the end of March in order to prevent the mass spread of coronavirus.
After March, the first passenger train of 300 people left Tbilisi for Batumi yesterday at 8 o'clock in the morning.
Under new regulations, passengers have to undergo thermal screening before boarding the train, and as soon as they enter the carriage, they should step on disinfecting mats, after that they will be treated with a disinfectant. Social distancing is also mandatory. Passengers should wear face masks during the whole journey.
According to Dachi Tsaguria, Director of Georgian Railway Passenger Transportation, travel will be possible in 5 directions - Tbilisi-Batumi, Tbilisi-Zugdidi, Tbilisi-Poti, Tbilisi-Ozurgeti, Tbilisi-Kutaisi.
“Georgian Railways calls on passengers to try to buy train tickets online in order to be as safe as possible, as well as to follow the rules as much as possible,” Tsaguria said.
According to Paata Imnadze, Deputy Head of the National Center for Disease Control, the Georgian Railway has prepared quite well and train travel is one of the safest today.
”It is much easier to control passengers there, there are tickets with nominal lists. So, the railway is the safest of all other transportations,” Imnadze added.
Interestingly, the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) published the domestic tourism information, according to which 51% of 992,900 domestic travellers visited friends and relatives in 2019 when travelling inside their home country.
The majority of the visits came from Tbilisi (average 286,900 visits per month) and Imereti region (208,000 visits per month).
Overall 992,900 Georgian resident visitors aged 15 years and older made on average 1.2 million visits per month on the territory of Georgia in 2019. The number of visitors increased by 8.6 % year-on-year.
In the reporting period the monthly average number of tourist visits of Georgian residents amounted to 530,700, which is 10.3% higher compared to 2018.
In 2019 the monthly average expenditure during the visits equalled GEL153.5 million, 6% higher than in 2018. As for the average expenditure per visit decreased by GEL3 and amounted to GEL129.3.
As for the first quarter of 2020, the average monthly number of local visitors aged 15 and older in Georgia was 887.2 thousand, who made 1.0 million visits to the country. During this period, the number of visitors is 3.4 % less than the corresponding data for the first quarter of 2019.
According to the agency, in the first quarter of this year, the average monthly number of tourist visits to Georgia by resident residents of Georgia was 430.2 thousand, which is 8.6 % less than in the same period last year.
According to Geostat, in the first quarter of 2020, 37.7 % of visitors were in the 31-50 age group.
The average monthly expenditure in the first quarter of 2020 was GEL127.2 million. This figure is 4.5% higher than the same period last year. At the same time, the average expenditure on the visit increased by 10.7 % and amounted to GEL122.3.
